We are living through a time of uniquely contradictory trends. The post cold war era may be summed up for many by one sentence; there is less immediate threat, but much more insecurity than ever before. We no longer fear a super power-driven world war, but are increasingly concerned with growing social tension and conflict.
Conflict arises whenever individuals/groups have different values, opinions, needs, interests and are unable to find a middle way. Conflict is defined as a clash between individuals/ groups arising out of a difference in thought process, attitudes, understanding, interests, requirements and even sometimes perceptions. A conflict results in heated arguments, physical abuses and definitely loss of peace and harmony. A conflict can actually change relationships.
Friends can become foes as a result of conflict. Difference in living standards, social discrimination, political inequality, insufficient democracy, disregard for human rights etc may be considered long-term causes of conflict.
There is no consensus on the utility of early warning in conflict prevention. Some analysts argue that failed opportunities for conflict prevention have occurred not because of insufficient time to respond, but because of a lack of political will to react to the warning.
As conflicts escalate, adversaries begin to make greater threats and impose harsher negative sanctions. There is often a greater degree of direct violence and all sides suffer heavy losses. In some cases, these conflicts spiral completely out of control. Given the highly destructive role that escalation plays, it is important to develop strategies to limit and reverse this process.
Conflict Prevention refers to strategies used in the pre-violent phase. They may include measures to increase trust and establish predictability among the conflict parties. These strategies are intended to keep disputes from escalating into violence. While routine diplomacy takes place during peace time, preventive diplomacy can help address and manage escalating tensions.
Preventive diplomacy, conflict prevention and other forms of preventive action intended to stop various kinds of conflicts before they escalate to widespread violence are the subject of intense debate.
Children are the most vulnerable group among populations living in regions affected by civil strife. In an environment of violence, children are vulnerable to fear, injuries, separation from family etc…. The condition of children, the status of their education and child protection issues in these civil strife-affected places have been overshadowed by the discourse on conflict and conflict-resolution.
Growing up in a hostile environment that is marred by everyday violence and insecurity, children live in a constant state of fear and lack basic rights to health, education and protection. Children suffering from trauma and living in civil strife affected places have difficulty in comprehend and learning and need constant psycho-social support to reach their full potential. However, don’t know whether such mechanism or structure is in place to offer such support or counseling to children in our state.
There is growing recognition that children and youth need to be engaged in positive activities; and that they have much to contribute to peace processes, reconstruction and peace building initiatives. Children and youth have already been making effective contributions to various programmes, including those focused, for example, on rebuilding social relationships, developing cultures of peace, rehabilitating education systems, and promoting livelihoods and economic recovery.
Involvement in such activities can counter the traumatizing and destructive experiences of violence that conflict-affected children and youth have undergone. More broadly, it provides positive and constructive roles for youth that render them less susceptible to mobilization to violence.
Civil society organisations, rather than governments, are in a better position to deal with such indirect causes of conflict. Civil society is widely assumed to be an important actor for peace building. As such, substantive focus has been given towards building and strengthening civil society. In such environments, civil society is understood as playing an important role in reducing violence, and in facilitating the conditions necessary for building a sustainable peace. Civil society has the potential to play an important and effective role in peace building during all stages of conflict, and has often contributed positively to the peace building process.
Violence is the most important factor limiting the ability for civil society to play a meaningful role in peace building. The correlation is simple: the higher the level of violence, the more that the space is reduced for civil society to act. As a consequence, coherent policy and operational measures to reduce violence independently from civil society initiatives need to be systematically explored.
Civil societies/ NGOs displays impressive creativity in solving practical problems and play an important role in paving the way for the implementation of conflict-resolution measures.
Absence of effective, accountable and transparent institutions to redistribute resources in a fair and equitable manner and regulate tensions allows conflicts to often take violent form often. There is a need to put efforts by the government to identify and analyze sources of conflict; supports early responses to address the causes and consequences of instability and violent conflict; and seeks to integrate conflict mitigation and management.
Should not fail to guarantee public security, respect for human rights and help the communities to reach a definitive solution to the issues that is affecting the community and discuss the issues and set new outline of partnership where governmental agencies, organizations, civil societies and NGOs collectively rise to the challenges posed by violence, complex emergencies.
We need to promote a culture of conflict prevention and contribute that enables the early identification of tensions, the correct assessment of one's own role in conflict situations, and timely, appropriate measures for conflict transformation and peaceful solutions. We need to be committed to a positive vision of peace that not only seeks to remove both direct and structural violence, but also to address the root causes of conflict, violence and fragility.
Lithsa Yingbidhongru Kiphire: Nagaland
